'88 W124 Ex- Berlin Taxi - suddenly a millionaire

[TurboDieselWeasel]

So, another issue adressed, finally... As I mentioned, the aux fan had melted the fuse holder. This was an aftermarket holder for a bladed fuse that was just stuck under the lid of the fuse box. The fuse holder in the factory fuse box had a meltdown before.



So, I never liked this thing just dangling around the fuse box. Now that it was broken anyway, it was time to adress it.

I took a bracket & aux fuse holder which originally is used to hold the fuses for the tow bar and seat heater. Since the car is equiped with tow bar & seat heater, the other aux fuse box was full. If this one melts as well, I have a couple of them as spares... That fan draws a lot of amps.



Also installed a new engine fan shroud, which was like 30€ on the counter. Pretty cheap!

That's all, odometer now at 1.003.000.

Cheers,
Jan

[varelse]

If the fan keeps pulling enough power to fuse, shouldn't it be running through a relay?

[TurboDieselWeasel]

There actually is a relais for the fan. But the fuse is in the power line and is still the weakest link...

The fuse meltet because there's a switch in the dashboard to activate the fan on high speed. I used it since the viscous fan wasn't working, so the electric fan was working beyond it's designed runing time This is usually not an issue, but it does happen from time to time that one of those fuses melts it's way into the factory fuse holder. Mostly when they are corroded and have a high transition resistance. And I guess the cheap blade fuse holder also had a bad resistance due to it's "cut throug mantling" nature (I only know the german word; "stromdieb"). I'll see.

But you are right, maybe this could be re-wired and improved. I also plan on switching the headlights with relais at some point. Also the seat heater isn't switched with relais, neither are the electric windows.

[johnthesparky]

They are called Scotch Lock here, well that's the polite name anyway

[grizz]

Jun 11, 2017 15:22:04 GMT johnthesparky said:

They are called Scotch Lock here, well that's the polite name anyway

Horrible barsteward things.

Still, one can always fix that.

[General Clem]

Hey! Jan?

We're missing your fully mechanically processed diesel fuel shot. I can't stay sober much longer.. I. can't...

... bought another 603 turbo. Do you see what you do to me, Jan...

There's a couple easter eggs on my first post on RR, one of them is about you haha.
The post itself is just story time though, nothing about the car yet.

Cheers!

[optimusprime2]

Very interesting posts to read .
I was lucky, i only had to replace both front wings .Well at the moment i have only replaced one of them , thats the passengers side so far . Looking for another for the drivers side. The car was a gift ,With all original number plates .The full set of keys, even the sales invoce. All the little jobs that come along with a 28 year old have been done by me .So by know i know a little about these .

[TurboDieselWeasel]

Yeah, short of updates lately, mainly due to lack of time and will to do any wrenching... And because there's simply no need for it right now. Just driving, driving, driving.

It'll get new rear calipers in the near future, since one pistons is a bit sticky.

Milage: 1.004.500

General Clem - The Turbos seem to be nearly extinct, there's almost none for sale anymore... Resp. all diesels, espacially the wagons, are getting very rare. I'm glad I've kept mine...

optimusprime2 - replacing the water pump on a 6-cylinder petrol engine is one of the less joyfull repairs. Be glad you don't have A/C, 'cause the big line runs just in front of the rear lower bolt... Lovely bit of engineering!

Cheers,
Jan

[bortaf]

If the fan is drawing enough current to melt both the original and replacement fuse holder i'd say it's on it's way out, seen semi siezed fans kill many a wiring loom, fuse box, relay holder, the lot and still run ! i'd hate to see this mega millage monster ruined by a semi siezed fan !
Keep up the reports mate, allways enjoys seeing what your up to car wise

[General Clem]

Posted by TurboDieselWeasel 9 hours ago

The Turbos seem to be nearly extinct, there's almost none for sale anymore... Resp. all diesels, espacially the wagons, are getting very rare. I'm glad I've kept mine...

I know, it's the only one I've seen in months in my area for under 2k€. Was a bit of a struggle to find her.
The car is very rough on the outside but mechanically - oh my god. I've never seen anything like it. Injectors don't rattle, lifters are dead silent, not a speck of blowby, box selector is tight af, brand new blower motor, windscreen wiper motor... She's been taken good care of.
Voltage regulator needs replacing, interior dash lights don't work (as usual) and one of the exhaust hangers is shot. That's it. Even the headliner is sticking up there, and the frame is dry as a bone! Car currently sits in a very dusty, dry environment so I attribute the remarkable lack of rust to that.

Here's the bombshell though:
WDB1241331B979096illuminati
She's a June of 1993 girl, the very last month they made the series two. This car is likely one of the last thousand 300 Turbo sedans built before the E-class facelift, maybe even less.

Snatched it for 900€ and got a set of 10 spoke pentastars in the deal, the shameful late AMG imitation kind of alloys, but they have potential for a quick dressup and flip. Let me know if you have any leads on R129 8 holes by the way haha.

I'll be getting it Wednesday this week, call me giddy

Cheers mate!

[General Clem]

Jun 24, 2017 8:14:06 GMT optimusprime2 said:

The car was a gift ,With all original number plates .The full set of keys, even the sales invoce. 

Clean car bud, congrats!

[TurboDieselWeasel]

So, I officially have gone through a set of brake pads. For the first time ever They lasted pretty close to 100.000km.

That's new to me. I've installed brake pads in a lot of cars, but I never used them up. They still have some life left, but the wear contacts are touching the discs. And the yellow wear indicator light is annoying as hell, so I'll replace them soon.

Also need a set of new tyres... Two are almost worn, one is bald on the inner flank. So the front suspension needs an alignment - which probably means - I'll soon takle the front suspension rebuild. I have all the parts ready on the shelf. All that's left is making the Jeep ready for duty, so I have a backup car, should something not work out as planed.

Some work ahead... Apart from that; close to 1.006.000km on the counter...

Cheers,
Jan

[TurboDieselWeasel]

Hi!

Incredibly, something broke... This morning, as I left the bakery where I buy my breakfast every morning, there was a loud "Ka-TCHUNK!" coming from the front end...

So I turned around, and the issue was quickly found:



Just what I need... It's 3 weeks until my holidays, why couldn't it wait a little longer. Sigh.

On the bright side; I've allready started rebuilding some lower control arms. The plan is to make use of the holidays to rebuild the front & rear suspension. To only have to pay for a wheel alignment once. But oh well...

Cheers,
Jan

[General Clem]

That's a bit of a hit... Bad luck is catching up on the 126 and 124 crowd it seems

[varelse]

Looks okay to me, most of it's still there...

[TurboDieselWeasel]

It's fine. Just drives a bit different. Someone else probably wouldn't even notice the difference. But I've now done over 110.000km in this car - I sense a difference in how it handles. And the way it's seated, there's no danger of the spring falling out. Though I've put a zip-tie around it, for easy of mind

Anyway, not long until my years vacation - plan is to fully rebuild the front & rear suspension. And everything I find along the way. And maybe even start some long overdue welding repairs... Build a garage floor, fix the Jeep, return the Mini... And I'll probably get 1/3 of that done, but that's fine

It's strange, if I come to think about it; I have never continuously driven a car for such a long time, and never for such a distance. I think I just found "the" car with this

Cheers,
Jan

[astranaut]

Just showed the Mrs this as she grew up in Germany where these were rife, brought back some memories to the point she was looking for one on eBay

[hario]

Hey weasel dude where do you host your pictures? Photobucket just bucketed my a$$ and I'm looking for an alternate.

Are they stock million mile old springs??

[TurboDieselWeasel]

Hey there! I'm using my own payed-for webspace... Comes with personal e-mail adresses too And using WordPress to upload (and also run a little blog thingy). I've said good bye to "free" webhosting many, many years ago... About when Imageshack went through the same sh!t photobucket is now.

As for the age of the springs; I'd be VERY surprised if they are the first. It's nor really uncommon for 124 springs to break.

Anyway; MB doesn't stock the springs I need anymore. So I bought Lesjöfors. For 100€ less. Each. At work we've installed a lot of Lesjöfors springs to customer cars, without any complaints so far. On the other hand we had genuine Mercedes springs breaking after 2 years of use... So I'm not perticularily sad about being "forced" to buy Lesjöfors springs.

Cheers,
Jan

[varelse]

Heh. I read that as les jodhpurs, or 'the pants'.

These springs are the pants.

..I amuse myself at least.